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Someone once told me that to begin on a magickal path is to begin on a path of solitude. No one will understand you anymore, no one will “get it” and no one will stick around long enough to share your joys and pains. Your experiences will separate you from the mundane world around you and the people in it. Eventually those you know fall away as the bite of the off hand comment cuts you to the quick. They think they are being cute or funny, but they are making fun of something they don’t understand and something that has come to mean a whole heck of a lot to you.
It’s hard to take lightly the inner search and exploration one works so hard on when they begin a magickal life. Not that we should loose our sense of humor, that would be a death in itself, just look at all the conflicts going on at internet sites between Pagans and magickal practitioners who have lost the ability to relax and laugh at themselves and others. It’s funny how those who seem to want unity and camaraderie of others who might understand them and their journey tend to isolate themselves and fraction off from others on such a regular basis.
In the end, the journey is a solitary one. Even with a close friend, lover, or family who might also share that view, every path is a lonely one, for each and every person to walk alone. Not one of us is completely like another and the stones we stumble upon may be easily passed over by someone else, even if they walk in your footsteps. (Ever try and walk in deep snow right behind someone else, stepping in their footprints?)
As far as the rest of the world, I don’t mind the isolation, I’ve never really fit in or blended well with others. I suppose it was a preparation. I’m not missing much and so it doesn’t matter. I have very few people in my life and I know what I go through will be individual to me. Life is good.
As the usual routine, coffee came with religious conversation this morning.
How do you view Archetypes?
I tend to be a Pantheist, believing that God and the Universe are one. So I would look at archetypes and simply a focused point of that universal energy. A symbol or character representing the energies one wishes to tap into, but still part of the whole.
But could they exist on their own after being “fed” by millions of people over thousands of years?
I still see them as just an aspect of the Universe, not as anthropomorphic individual entities.
But what about entities that you create in magick that take on individual thought and actions separate from yourself such as servitors? They act independent of you? Are they not “stand alone” entities? Or the Goetic entities that you summon and have conversation with?
Servitors, I see as thought, will and desire that one sends out. The energies can still be in force and motion, yet not necessarily “thinking” creatures. Maybe that is my folly.
I suppose my views come from my experiences. I have never really had my servitor talk to me, nor have I summoned anything as great as a Goetic entity. I was every early on in my magickal education in my servitor creation.
Skepticism and doubt still haunt my work and I’m sure it affects it. However, I have to keep reminding myself that I am but a babe in this world. A babe amongst teens and ancients as far as magick in concerned.
The majority of those I encounter have practiced since adolescence and I haven’t even hit the 5 year mark. I’m still opening up (or learning to open up) to aspects of my humanity and divinity that have been hibernating for a very long time, and I don’t always practice as I know I should.
How I view mixing pantheons
“How can I be substantial if I fail to cast a shadow? I must have a dark side if I am to be whole; and in as much as I become conscious of my shadow I also remember that I am a human being like any other.”
~Jung
Last year I had the pleasure to meet in person one of the most outspoken Satanists of the area. What a nice guy! I mentioned the meeting in an earlier posting. Well, how things have changed.
This Satanist who was VERY verbal about creating a real world magickal community, minus the “fluffies” and becoming a force of power, has converted to Christianity. Yup, and he reads Tarot in the name of Jesus now.
This conversion supposedly happened after a traumatic encounter with a being he felt was classic “demonic possession”. I listened to his description of what happened and this is my interpretation. I think this Satanist, who was already in a state of split loyalties (He himself admitted to) finally met up with possibly a truly “evil” individual. Was this individual “possessed”? Possibly. This person knew things, says the Satanist, that he shouldn’t have (although this or that information can be found on certain web sites admits the Satanist) and knew “third party info” which is one of the signs of possession. (Not like the guy could have possibly knew a friend of a friend and you didn’t know or maybe was a little more “interested” in obtaining info than the Satanist thought, no, that would be too simple an answer.)
True Evil and truly evil people do exist on this earth. I have seen it and curled back my lips and hissed like a cat and curled up to avoid the attention as much as possible. Disdain,vileness, and attitude do not mean the person is possessed. You live and dip into the darkness of the Universe, eventually it will come to your door. It seems to me that this Satanist saw the face of vile and hatred like he never saw before and ran away with his tail between his legs.
Others I have spoken to see it as purely a materialistic shift. His stores and business were doing poorly so he decided to create this story to sell to the Christians instead of the Occultists/Witches/Pagans. All his site have converted along with him, and “donate” buttons abound.
From witchy royalty to Reverend Jesus Tarot Reader. All seem fishy to me. He has the right to believe as he chooses, but to encourage people to converge on an area and then leave them high and dry is wrong. If his heart was torn spiritually then it wasn’t REALLY this incident that shocked him into switching, he was already there.
Credibility. It’s what’s for dinner.
Some encounters I have had and seen as well as info from others I know fall into one of two categories:
1. High and mighty *itches (and it’s not a “w”) who think all others who don’t do things “their” way are wrong/evil/unworthy.
2. Un-informed lightweights who really don’t know what they are talking about.
I have friends who might have other opinions or issues about Wicca or certain people in the Wiccan community. It of course does not apply to EVERY SINGLE practitioner. This is how I see things, it is my opinion and observation.
Those from (1.) have worked hard and progressed far in the structured religion of Wicca. What they have lost is an open mind. A few were raised in the religion but many have come to it later in life and would have had to have an open mind at one point. What happened to that? What I can’t understand is how people who view the likes of Christian “trolls” pushing their belief and chastising others with disdain and contempt can turn around and behave equally as righteous and sanctimonious in forums. They will snub their noses at Satanists and fluffies alike.
One thing I will say is at least these Wiccans are. By that I mean that they know their stuff, have actively studied and participated in ritual, for the most part know the history and establishment and structure (dare I say dogma?) of their beliefs. These are many out there who use the term but have no clue what they are talking about. This leads me to category (2.)
There is a great amount of ignorance and misinformation out there, so some of these people are not entirely to blame. Before I began pursuing my current path, I myself was under the wrong assumption that if you were Pagan or considering yourself a “witch” that you would fall under the religion of Wiccan. What is not understood by the masses is that Wicca is a separate and established form of worship. Not all witches are Wiccan. The blurry definition of what a “witch” is doesn’t help to clear things up. Everyone seems to have their own definition.
There are many, many people out there who worship nature, light candles and surround themselves with crystals and call themselves Wiccan. They confuse the Neo-Pagan religion with the “old religion” and believe the first thing they read on the internet on this or that. They are almost always solitary and don’t know about covens, initiation, proper ritual structure, and other specific teachings of Wicca. They like the light and fluffy nature/goddess worship and never look into further study or advancement. If they are happy with that, there is nothing wrong with it, but they shouldn’t be making “informational” videos on YouTube or spouting in forums about facts that they really don’t have such as the source of certain rituals. Oh, and I love how these people will tell a Satanist that they are evil and will go to Hell. Ummm, Hello, Wiccans don’t believe in Hell.
LEARN something and don’t believe everything you read. It took a long time of LOTS of reading for me to sort out the facts. Don’t claim you are Wiccan if you don’t follow their teachings and rituals. It’s like saying “I’m Catholic but I’ve never read the bible or gone to a mass”.
OPEN your minds and hearts to others. TEACH instead of blaming and name calling and putting others down. Get more flies with honey, Honey.
Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attention from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding.
http://www.buddhanet.net/ans73.htm
What are you looking for? Why do you practice Magick in the way that you do? What are your beliefs?
We all hear these questions, either from others or from ourselves. This is an attempt to clarify myself, who I am, what I’m about, and all the whys I can think of. It’s for others to understand me a little better, maybe see parts of their own journey within mine, and also for myself, as a record in the future of how I might have changed or not.
My latest explorations are in alchemy, more specifically creation of my tinctures. The original purpose was simply to have a tool to increase my magickal workings. In process and research, I am finding so much more to it.
The main goal of the alchemist is either the transmutation of one material into another, as in the search to turn lead into gold, or the evolution of the “raw and unfinished” nature by a process of separation and recombination, sometimes resulting in an “elixir of life” that will cure all disease and extend life indefinitely. Well, this is what I hope to attain! I guess I’m an alchemist!
The raw material to be transformed is myself as I stand this day, in all states of humanity and unfinished roughness. Working through LHP practices to learn and know myself, I hope to bring new understanding of who I am in this world and how I relate to everything around me. It involves a deep look within as well as without, pushing boundaries and experiences so I understand my body, my heart, my soul. Some of this need not be as extreme as others may lead to believe but the work on ones self I feel is an integral part of reaching a relationship with divinity. I don’t necessarily think that aligning with the 4 elements is the way or even enough. Maybe it just isn’t in my case. I am lead and it’s going to take a lot of work to become gold.
Apart from the practice of LHP processes, I do seek a union with the divine but I see having to go left in order to proceed right. Does that make sense to anyone? By separating, establishing and understanding myself as an individual in the universal sense, in the end through recombining with divinity I will be part of the elixir creation. It will be an enlightenment that will connect me to the divine and bestow the knowledge, healing and everlasting life as I come to know all that I am a part of. We are all energy and energy never dies and so of course there is life after death, just not in a more classical Christian kind of way, more of an Einstein conceptual way.
So I am on this journey of discovery and transmutation. With Jung and Yoga, Gurdjieff and the Qabbalah I shall be turned from lead into gold and drinking the Elixir of life from the holy grail!
On March 8th Saturn will be at it’s closest to the Earth. You might even see it with a small telescope. Ahh, the Perfect timing for a Saturnian working on (SAT) the night of the 7th!
I’m planning a HUGH ritual with hopefully wonderful implications. I’m debating if I should crack open my tincture a little bit for this one. It’s only been sitting a week but it has a wonderful color and scent already.
I’m finally feeling myself and my magick going somewhere. With some guidance and advice from some experienced Thelemites and other practitioners I think I’m finally finding my niche. It’s much more Qabalistic than I had originally thought, but then again I didn’t understand it much before. I suppose it’s like a “When the student is ready the master appears” kind of thing.
Anyway, I like it.
Following the new moon, I am working on qabalistic planetary tinctures.
I am gathering the corresponding number of herbs and/or stones that I might have on hand for each sephera and creating on the correct hour and day. According to my research, they have to sit for a minimum of 2 weeks. I’m playing around with the idea of somehow working more correspondance in there somehow but I might just stick with 28 days-the moon cycle for all of them.
Most tinctures, according to information that I am getting from others, are usually one herb and made to consume in water or wine. Mine (at least these I’m currently working on) will NOT be able to be ingested. Having to work with what I have on hand, not all the herbs I’m adding are non-toxic so these tinctures will be used in anointing objects, creating magickal inks, and any other way I can figure out to boost workings and meditations.
Now that I have begun and put more thought into it, I will start a few consumable ones. I’ll use those as I do personal work through the Qabalistic spheres, attuning vibrationally to each planet and seeing how each affects my work. I KNOW I’m going to start with a solar one.
A song that makes you sit and listen to the words and think…
Crayon Angel by Judee Sill
Crayon Angel songs are slightly out of tune
But I’m sure I’m not to blame.
Nothin’s happened but I think it will soon,
So I sit here waitin’ for God and a train,
To the Astral plane.
Magic rings I made have turned my finger green.
And my mystic roses died.
Guess reality is not as it seems,
So I sit here hopin’ for truth and a ride,
To the other side.
Phony prophets stole the only light I knew,
And the darkness softly screamed.
Holy visions disappeared from my view,
But the angels come back and laugh in my dreams,
I wonder what it means.
